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Arithmetic Teaching Apparatus

Educational Games

By the twentieth century, many Americans embraced the idea that children should spend most of their time at play or in school, rather than working outside the home. Toys that encouraged learning—including learning arithmetic—acquired special status. These ranged from card games to moveable toys.

For decades, teachers drilled American school children using flash cards that gave simple arithmetic problems. The advent of inexpensive electronic calculators in the 1970s made it possible to do much routine arithmetic automatically. To teach school children the meaning of basic operations, new devices were introduced, including this form of flash card. In the 24 Game, the answer to the problem is always 24. A player’s task is to find out how numbers can be combined in simple arithmetic operations to reach this result.

According to the instructions, players select 12 to 24 cards to place in a pile at the center of a table. A player who sees a solution to the top card touches it. If his or her solution is correct, the player wins the card. Once it is taken, the next card is in play. The combinations on the cards are classed as easy (one white dot), medium (two red dots) or difficult (three gold dots). Once all the cards have been played, players add up the point value of their cards, with one point for each easy card, two for medium cards, etc. The original set reportedly had 24, 48, and 24 of these kinds of cards. This example has only 14 easy cards, 34 medium ones, and 23 difficult ones remaining.

There are also two flat paper sleeves, each of which holds a card. The sleeve covers one quadrant. When cards in sleeves are used, the goal of the game becomes finding one number that can make 24 on all of the cards (ignoring the numbers covered by the sleeve). A complete set includes four sleeves. This set also includes an instruction leaflet.

A mark on the top of the box reads: 24 (/) GAME (/) SINGLE DIGITS (/) EDITION (/) Builds Fast Minds TM. A mark on the side of the box and on the instructions reads: Suntex International, Inc., 118 North Third St., Easton, PA 18042, [copyright symbol] 1989, 1993, 1996. Another mark on the side of the box reads: MADE IN THE USA. A mark on the bottom of the box reads: #3397.

For decades, teachers drilled American school children using flash cards that posed simple arithmetic problems. The advent of inexpensive electronic calculators in the 1970s made it possible to do much routine arithmetic automatically. Flash cards took new forms.

This set of cards teaches addition and subtraction, apparently to individual students. It consists of a deck of 42 cards. Each card is printed on both sides with two circles divided into four quadrants. A digit is printed in two quadrants of each circle(for the easy cards) or three quadrants (for the medium and difficult cards). There are 12 easy cards marked with a single dot (five of these cards are identical to five others); 16 medium cards (eight identical to eight others), which have two dots, 14 difficult cards (six identical to six others), which have three dots; and a cover card. The playing cards also have a single digit marked along the top and bottom edge. The goal of the game is to choose a set of cards of a given level of difficulty, quickly point to one of the circles, and explain how the numbers in the quadrants of that circle can be added and subtracted to produce the digit along the edge. Once a student could accomplish this correctly within certain time limits, he or she “jumped” to another level and received an award.

A mark on the cover card reads: 24 (/) GAME (/) ADD/SUBTRACT (/) JUMPING LEVELS TM 1 to 3. Another reads: SUNTEX (/) INTERNATIONAL INC. Another reads: [copyright sign] 1995. A paper tag attached to the front of the cover card reads: Benjy.

According to Robert Sun, the designer of the 24 Game, these are “mini-cards,” interim take-home cards that were distributed 24 to a pack. It seems likely that this represents most of two packs.

The example was obtained by the donor at Georgetown Day School in the period 1996–1999.

This deck contains cards of two types. One type has on each side a circle divided into four quadrants, with a single-digit number in each of these quadrants. By a series of simple operations, the digits in each circle can be combined to produce the number 24. The second type of card has, on one side, two circles divided into four quadrants. On each of the easy cards, two quadrants have a single digit. On each of the medium and difficult cards, three quadrants have a digit. A number is printed in the margin. Players are to determine a series of operations on all the digits in the quadrants of one circle that will yield the number in the margin. The reverse of each of these cards has printed on it two numbers with a common factor. All cards of this type are marked “ADVANTA”.

The deck has 15 easy cards, each marked with a single dot; 16 medium cards, which have two dots; 16 difficult cards, which have three dots; and a cover card. The goal of the game apparently is to choose a set of cards of given level of difficulty and quickly solve the problem on it. Once a student could accomplish this correctly within certain time limits, he or she “jumped” to another level and received an award.